James Burnham

Life

James Burnham was born on November 22, 1905, in Chicago, Illinois. He attended Princeton University, graduating in 1927, then studied at Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. Burnham began his academic career as a professor of philosophy at New York University in 1932, where he taught for over two decades.

In the 1930s, Burnham was a prominent Trotskyist and an editor of the Marxist journal The New International. He broke with Marxism in 1940, co-authoring a critical letter with Max Shachtman that articulated their departure from orthodox Trotskyism. This political evolution led to his most influential work on elite theory and managerial society.

During World War II, Burnham worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. In the post-war period, he became a leading conservative intellectual and anti-communist, co-founding the National Review with William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Burnham died on July 28, 1987, in Kent, Connecticut.

People Who Influenced Their Thought

• Leon Trotsky (1879-1940): Burnham's early Marxist period was shaped by Trotsky's revolutionary theory, though he later rejected Trotskyism while retaining analytical frameworks about social transformation.
• Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941): The Italian elite theorist's concept of a ruling class provided the foundation for Burnham's analysis of managerial society.
• Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923): Pareto's theory of elite circulation and his mathematical approach to social science influenced Burnham's systematic analysis of power structures.
• Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950): The economist's analysis of capitalism, entrepreneurship, and creative destruction informed Burnham's understanding of economic transformation.

Main Ideas and Publications

Burnham is best known for his theory of the "managerial revolution," which argued that capitalist society was being replaced not by socialism but by a new form of class society dominated by managers, technicians, and bureaucrats.

His seminal work, The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World (1941), presented his core thesis: that ownership and control of the means of production were separating, with managers—who control production without owning it—becoming the new ruling class. Burnham analyzed developments in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and New Deal America as variations of this transition to managerial society. He predicted that the United States, Germany, and Japan would emerge as the three great "managerial" powers.

In The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom (1943), Burnham synthesized and popularized the work of elite theorists including Niccolò Machiavelli, Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, and Georges Sorel. He argued that these thinkers, by exposing the realities of power, provided better tools for defending freedom than idealistic democratic theories that ignored elite rule.

His later works focused on Cold War strategy and anti-communism:

• The Struggle for the World (1947) argued for American global leadership against Soviet communism and influenced the development of Cold War containment policy.
• Containment or Liberation? (1953) criticized the containment doctrine as too defensive, advocating instead for active measures to liberate Soviet satellite states.
• Suicide of the West (1964) analyzed what Burnham saw as Western liberalism's self-destructive tendencies in the face of communist expansion.
• The War We Are In: The Last Decade and the Next (1967) examined the Vietnam War and global Cold War dynamics.

As a National Review editor for decades, Burnham wrote extensively on foreign policy, intelligence operations, and political theory, shaping modern American conservatism's approach to international relations.

Controversies around His Main Work or Thought

Burnham's work generated significant controversy across the political spectrum. His Managerial Revolution thesis was criticized by Marxists who argued he misidentified the nature of Soviet society and underestimated the continuing power of capitalist ownership. Liberal critics contended that he overgeneralized from specific historical trends and underestimated democratic resistance to managerial power.

His break with Marxism and subsequent anti-communist activism made him a target of left-wing criticism, with some former comrades viewing him as an apostate who lent intellectual credibility to Cold War militarism. His work for the OSS/CIA and his advocacy of covert action against communist regimes raised ethical questions about the role of intellectuals in intelligence operations.

In later decades, some sociologists argued that Burnham's prediction of a unified managerial class failed to materialize, as managers remained divided by sector, ideology, and competing interests. The resurgence of shareholder capitalism and financialization in the late 20th century also challenged his thesis about the permanent separation of ownership and control.

Conservative critics sometimes found his Machiavellian realism uncomfortable, preferring more idealistic justifications for American power. His willingness to analyze the United States in the same elite-theory terms he applied to other societies occasionally disturbed nationalist conservatives.

Key People Influenced by Their Thought

• William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008): The founder of National Review considered Burnham a mentor and intellectual godfather of modern American conservatism, particularly in foreign policy.
• Daniel Bell (1919-2011): The sociologist engaged with Burnham's managerial thesis in his own work on post-industrial society and the end of ideology.
• Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928-2017): The national security advisor's analysis of the Soviet system and technocratic power showed Burnham's influence.
• Samuel P. Huntington (1927-2008): The political scientist's work on civil-military relations and the "military-industrial complex" reflected Burnham's concerns about managerial and institutional power.
• Irving Kristol (1920-2009): The "godfather of neoconservatism" drew on Burnham's anti-communist realism and his analysis of intellectual class dynamics.
• John B. Judis (1941-present): The journalist and historian has written extensively on Burnham's influence on American foreign policy and conservative thought.
• Paul Gottfried (1941-present): The paleoconservative thinker has engaged with Burnham's elite theory and his critique of managerial society.

Legacy

James Burnham fundamentally reshaped twentieth-century political thought by synthesizing European elite theory with American Cold War strategy, providing both a powerful analytical framework for understanding bureaucratic power and a realist foundation for anti-communist foreign policy that continues to influence conservative and neoconservative thinking.